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Oliver Sacks' recent book, The Mind's Eye, is well worth a read. He has created an amalgam of detailed clinical anecdotes that weave a story of the remarkably resilient and flexible capabilities exhibited by the human mind in the face of adversity. He describes how damage to the eye or brain can reveal the nature of brain mechanisms, and he highlights some of the many remarkable strategies that the remaining, intact brain can employ to circumvent damaged areas. Sacks is a master storyteller. He lucidly explains complex science, and describes how this knowledge can be used to help his patients in their day-to-day lives.
Loss of spoken language and the ability to read
Massive stroke due to hemorrhage into the left side of the brain impairs movement on the other side of the body, and in most people impairs the ability to speak due to aphasia, which is often associated with the ability to read. In some people, however, the capacity to reason linguistically remains intact, as in the remarkable patient, Pat, whom Sacks describes. This ability, combined with the enhanced vibrant and dynamic body language that she developed, enabled her to ultimately communicate with verve and fluency. The idea that a stroke ends a person's inner life was completely rejected by Pat's daughters, who adopted a totally positive approach to her medical condition. Despite the understandable overwhelming nature of her neurological disorder, Pat ultimately conquered over adversity. Using multiple adaptive strategies, she became skilled at understanding and communicating by means of a range of alternative approaches. In particular, she gained an ability to communicate fluently by selecting a succession of singular printed words, which she had become able to read, using a custom-designed lexicon compiled by her daughters.
Neurological alexia is an inability to read, due to focal damage to the brain. The case of Howard Engel is described in which a stroke affecting the object- and shape-recognition centers in the left temporal lobe of his brain led to objects such as fruit becoming unidentifiable. This deficit was associated with problems recognizing colors and faces, which can also be affected by damage in the same area of...